I'm just after a bit of advice, I have always fancied trying a tube amplifier, just to have a play around with and see what it sounds like.

My speakers are Monitor Audio RX6.

I guess ideally I need something used that I could sell on without too much loss. Knowing nothing about tube amps I'm worried it could be a mine field, there is all kinds of things on ebay. Can anyone recommend things to look out for?

Budget wise is as little as possible really, I could stretch up to £200.

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- a beaten-up old classic amp, which may need some tlc and be beyond fugly

- a low powered classic amp (AI S300, say) if you're lucky

It may be that none of these is suitable. While I don't know your speakers, they may well need a fair bit of control (i.e. damping factor in the amplifier), so would sound soft and mushy with pretty much any of the above. It'd put you off tube amps for life.

The best option for sound would be the middle one, but buying vintage tube amps can be a minefield. There are the 80s and 90s ones, which should be reliable, but 50s and 60s ones are very old - while they can work fine, it's likely that there will be components that are well off spec, and the various switches and other contacts may be in poor condition.

Ideally, double your budget and hold out for something like an Audio Innovations 500 or 700, which sometimes come up at the £400-odd price. Good at driving more tricky loads, and sound great.

Adam makes some good points. To avoid disappointment you really would be better to hold out till you have more cash and get something like an Audio Innovations 500 that he suggested. £400 is a much more realistic budget to start from.